Lois Lerner, head of the Internal Revenue Service tax-exemption division that targeted conservative groups for extra scrutiny between 2010 and 2012, will invoke her right to avoid self-incrimination and refuse to testify before Congress today, her lawyer said.
Lerner 'has not committed any crime or made any misrepresentation, but under the circumstances she has no choice but to take this course,' attorney William Taylor III wrote. Since Lerner won't answer questions, Taylor asked that she be excused from appearing before the House Oversight Committee, saying that would 'have no purpose other than to embarrass or burden her.' There was no immediate word on whether the committee will grant her request.
Nearly two dozen Tea Party activists protested outside the IRS offices in Boston yesterday.
'I contribute to some conservative organizations and I see the way they are being harassed,' said demonstrator George Kacek, 80, of Chelmsford. Similar protests took place in Washington, D.C., and other cities across the nation.
Meanwhile, former IRS acting Commissioner Douglas Shulman testified yesterday he knew little about the harassment despite assuring Congress in 2012, 'There's absolutely no targeting.'
In another Obama administration scandal, the monitoring of reporters' calls, Washington-based reporters for two networks complained they may have been targeted as well. Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News, who wrote critically of the 'Fast and Furious' gun-sales scandal, said her computers were hacked, and she believed it might be linked to the scrunity that was placed on Fox News reporter James Rosen over his North Korea reporting.
Herald wire services contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNFCdCHgbYxwTsIFw2mQDp6hzBc8pQ&url=http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/us_politics/2013/05/irs_official_to_take_fifth_to_avoid_testifying
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